According to You
by Light of the Dawn
Summary: Dawn feels trapped in a non-idealistic relationship with Paul and she hasn't seen Ash in years. Can a chance encounter with an old friend save Dawn from her downward spiral? Inspired by According to You by Orianthi. PearlShipping with hints of PokeShipping.
1. Old Cabinets and Forgotten Boxes

**I don't own Pokemon, but I so wish that I did. That would be BEYOND AMAZING.**

**Their Ages in this Fanfic:  
************************Paul - Between 17 and 18  
********Dawn - About 16  
****Ash - Between 17 and 18**

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Her peaches and cream skin was flawless, she herself was beautiful beyond comparison. Her eyes were the most wonderful shade of blue that could be imagined, and her hair was perfect too. Anyone might be distracted by her appearance, male or female. If she walked down the street, she often found someone had stopped to stare at her.

She was sitting cross legged in front of a large, old wooden cabinet. She reached into it, trying to find something very important. She had already pulled out several other things from it's dark depths, and laid them out on the floor beside her. What she was looking for must have been located at the very back of the cabinet, just her luck.

Finally, she saw the box that she wanted, the box to an unopened cake decorating kit. She'd been searching for that the entire morning, and at last she'd found it. Once she removed the dusty box from the cupboard, she noticed another box behind it. The only thing that she could read through the dust was her own name. Curious, she reached in and pulled out the box.

She opened the shoe box, she didn't know where it had come from, or what it was doing there, but the familiar handwriting on both the sides and the top said her name. She hurried to put everything back in place in the cabinet, though leaving enough room to return the box that said her name if she needed to.

She blew the dust off the top and began to pry the lid of the box off, it was stiff from having been stuck there long enough to gather enough dust to make the box unrecognizable. The box lid was just beginning to slide off when the clock began to chime, telling her that it was already One O'clock. Surprised at how late it actually was, she closed the cupboard and put the box on the coffee table.

Then she hurried into the kitchen to complete the task of icing a beautiful cake. She had slaved away at the cake for hours earlier that morning, and finally, it was perfect. But now she needed to ice it, so she had to put everything away for a moment and look for something that she needed but had not opened yet. Now she needed to finish up her task, and soon so that the icing could settle.

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**Stay tuned for more soon. I expect at least 1 Review before posting the next chapter. It's definitely longer than this one.**


	2. Photograph

**I don't own Pokemon, though like I said before, it would be awesome if I did.**

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Her cake had turned out better than could have been expected, which pleased her. The house was spotless, and she had everything set up perfectly. Everything was perfect for his homecoming. She had taken a shower to clean the dust, cake mix and icing from her, and put on something suitable to commemorate his return home.

But there was still another hour before he was scheduled to arrive, and she had done everything that needed, and what didn't need doing. So she wandered around the house for a moment, before finding herself standing in front of the coffee table, staring at a small shoe box that had her name written on it. She sat on the floor, cross legged in front of the coffee table, and opened the box.

Laying on the top of the box's contents was a case, her old ribbon case. She opened it to reveal all the ribbons that she had won in Pokemon Contests throughout her years as a Pokemon trainer. She felt proud of her accomplishments for a second, but then she closed the case and put it aside. She didn't need to feel accomplished, it might upset her. She didn't want to be upset when he came home.

But finding the ribbon case had sparked her attention. What else was in the box, waiting to be found by her? The next thing was her Pokedex, something she had used numerous times on her adventures as a Pokemon Trainer. It was full of information on Pokemon, something she had always called upon to tell her what she'd be facing in battle.

Another thing she found in the shoe box was her Pokeball capsules and seals. She had so many of them, and now they were just discarded in this old shoe box. Laying beside the ball capsules and seals were hair accessories; scrunchies, clips, hair pins... all on top of something pink and white. She couldn't figure out what it was, so she removed everything that was on top of it.

Her dress. The beautiful pink dress she'd always worn when she was participating in Pokemon contests. And now it was folded up and put into a shoe box with other stuff she'd used. Now the box was empty, just laying on the coffee table, amongst the things that had come out of it. She was more than curious now, as to why her old things had been shoved into an old shoe box and hidden away. She knew that she herself hadn't done it.

Carefully she repacked the shoe box, intent on returning it to it's home in the cabinet. Then she picked up the lid, and put it back on, something falling out of it, though managing to slip to the floor unnoticed. She didn't notice it until she'd put the box back in it's place in the cupboard, and come to tidy up any dust that had gotten on the coffee table while she'd been searching the shoe box.

That's when she saw it. A rectangle of white, laying under the coffee table. She picked it up and turned it over. It was a photograph, an old photograph. It was of her, five years ago, standing with two boys who she hadn't seen in five years. She remembered the scene in the photograph like it had been taken the day before. She'd just won her final ribbon to qualify for the Grand Festival, and the two boys, Ash and Brock were standing with her, beaming and congratulating her. She sighed at the memory, and let her world fade away for a moment as she thought back to the day she had won that ribbon.

Suddenly, she was jolted from her memory by the sound of a door slamming shut. Her eyes were wide with alarm for a moment as she stood up and hurried towards the front door. She put the picture in her hand down on a night stand type table as she passed it, making her way down the hall to the living room.

"You're Home!" She cried, reaching out to embrace the boy standing in the doorway, but he ignored her, and she stopped two feet away from him, her hands dropping to her sides with confusion. She took a deep breath, and reached out for his free hand. She grabbed it in hers, and pulled him forward, motioning towards the kitchen. "Come and see what I made for you!"

She was bubbling with excitement as she dragged him to the kitchen, to see the beautiful cake she had made for him. Her fingers were numb with anticipation as she waited for his response, for him to sweep her into his arms and hug her for her thoughtfulness. She wanted him to smile at her, or at least just say hello to her.

He shook her hand off of his and clenched his fists. He stared down at the cake, his green eyes narrowing. His mouth was set in a grim line. He didn't even look at her, smiling at him expectantly, hopefully. He stopped clenching his fists, and he raised one hand, sending the cake flying into the wall. _My Champion_ were nothing but blurs as the cake slid down the wall to rest in a broken pile of mush on the kitchen's tiled floor. Icing splattered all around where the cake had hit.

"This is all your fault!" He turned to her, fists clenched tightly again. His voice was loud and menacing, and his fists were raised. Her big beautiful blue eyes, which had grown wide at his response to the cake, were now shining with the tears that she was desperately holding back. She looked to her feet, trying not to cry.

He slammed one fist down on the counter, his eyes blazing. He raged on, using her as his verbal punching bag because he had lost the battle against the Sinnoh Region's Champion. After all, it was all her fault, and he needed to explain that to her in depth.

"If you weren't so pathetic and useless, then I might have won! Your stupid Pokemon are useless and pathetic too! They are so weak that they aren't worth the food that they eat! They are a waste of time and money, they aren't even good training partners for my Pokemon, and that's all they are used for! If you weren't such a pathetic wimp, then maybe your Pokemon would be strong enough to be worth an eighth of their feed!"

She turned and walked away from him, heading towards her bedroom. However, he followed her out into the hallway. "Don't you _dare_ walk away from me when I'm talking to you! Hold on, what's _this_?"

He'd found the picture on the table. He picked it up, crumpling his as he squeezed the picture with rage. Dawn had turned around, to see what he meant. He eyes grew wide as she saw what he'd discovered. He held the picture up high in the air, and tore it to pieces. She couldn't hold back her tears any more. And His rage had grown an alarming amount because of the picture.

"I told you, _never ever_ touch my stuff! And yet, here you go, disobeying me! I knew you couldn't be trusted, and I'd have to put locks on the cupboards! How dare you rummage through my possessions and take what you want from them? _How Dare You._" He was yelling louder now, his face red with rage.

"Paul, stop! I didn't go through your stuff! I was looking for the Icing Decorating Kit!" Dawn pleaded, her face flawed by the tears that rolled down her cheeks. "Besides, that picture was mine!"

"Yours? You don't have _anything_ in this house! I bought everything, you have _nothing_!" He roared, his hands shaking with the rage that pulsed through his entire body. "Now go in the kitchen and clean up the mess that you made!"

Dawn's eyes overflowed with a new river of tears and she turned, continuing to her bedroom. Her body was beginning to shake with all the sobs that she held back, and she wanted to lock herself away from Paul until he calmed down. Her vision was blurred as her tears flowed down her cheeks and off her chin, splatting on the floor.

"I told you to go and clean up the kitchen! You will do as I tell you! And stop blubbering like the wimp you are and clean your pathetic tears off the floor! That pathetic blubbering that your doing makes you so ugly, uglier than you ever are! So stop wailing like a big baby! Do what I said and clean up! And do it NOW!" Paul ordered, raising his fists. He was getting angrier and angrier every second that she opposed his authority.

"Or you'll what? I'm not your slave, Paul! You aren't in charge of me!" She screamed, changing course and rushing out the back door instead. She was blinded by her overwhelming emotions, and she raced as fast as she could away from the house, not checking to see if there were any vehicles coming before she ran across the road.

And she kept running. She didn't stop until she was well away from the house, far enough that she was out of the town completely. Exhausted, she collapsed in the comfort of the forest, crawling under a bush for protection. She lay in the dirt, terrified that he would find her there and drag her back. She wouldn't go back there now. She couldn't. And so, she cried herself to sleep.

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**Please Review or else I'm not gonna put up the next chapter, which isn't as long as this one, but it's still important! I'd like 5 reviews before I'll put up the next one, though they can be for either chapter. Please criticize my work, since I can't get better if you don't tell me what mistakes I'm making!**


	3. His Brown Eyes

**Wow, I certainly wasn't expecting so many to review the story overnight. I noticed some said that they found it hard to figure out who I meant? I did that on purpose, but I suppose that I didn't do it as effectively as I had hoped. I wanted to drive you crazy for a little while so that you'd _have_ to read more or else you'd just sit and wonder what happened for hours. If you look for it, you'll find that authors do that in books too, and I wanna be a famous author someday, so I gotta learn how to do the techniques. **

**And how Dawn ended up with Paul will be explained fully in a later chapter, so don't fear, you'll just have to keep reading and reviewing so that I'll keep posting the chapters! And unlike some of my other fanfics, I'm trying to keep this one as short and sweet as I can. **

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When she woke up the next morning, she started crying again. She lay in the dark, only sobbing because she had no tears left to cry. She'd cried herself dry, but she couldn't stop. She didn't care who found her now, she had finally come to the conclusion that her life wasn't worth living.

It was mid morning when someone finally stumbled across the sounds of her sobbing. He got down on his knees and looked under the bush, expecting to find a child who'd run away from home after an argument with their parents, not a sixteen year old girl. She merely looked up at him with dull eyes, and did everything that he told her to.

He took her back to his camp by the river and gave her some privacy so that she could get cleaned up. Then, he made them some breakfast and had her sit around the campfire he'd lit while they ate. He didn't get a good look at her face, because she never looked at him. She only stared down at her feet, and mumbled when spoken to.

After they'd eaten breakfast, he sent his Pokemon out of their pokeballs to get some exercise. His Pokemon recognized her, and they practically tackled their former traveling companion. He was confused at first by their obsession with the girl, until Pikachu climbed up onto the shoulder of his master and the girl looked up for the first time since the boy had found her earlier that morning.

His brown eyes met her blue ones, and his grew wide. She immediately looked down again, and put her head in her hands, avoiding his gaze. His mouth just hung open with shock for a long moment, before he managed to get over it enough to speak. And all he could do was speak one word. "Dawn?"

She started sobbing again, and he didn't need her to confirm it. He immediately joined her on the log and wrapped his arms around her for a long moment, attempting to comfort her. After a little while, she managed to stop crying. Pikachu patted her knee in an attempt to comfort her. Finally, she sighed and looked up into his face.

"Dawn, what happened?" He asked, his eyes full of concern.

"Paul and I had an argument." She whispered, wiping one eye with the back of her hand.

"Did he hit you?" His brown eyes were wide and angry now. Dawn was actually slightly afraid of him. "If he hit you, I'll-"

"He didn't hit me." Dawn interrupted him in a whisper. She looked back at her shoes, staring at them for a long moment before continuing. "But if he had, it would probably hurt less. We just had a really big argument. That's all."

Seeing that he'd upset her, he pulled her into another hug. He just wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on the top of her head. "Don't worry about a thing, I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you."

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**I tried to make sure that there are enough hints in this short chapter, though without stating it directly, that you can figure out who found Dawn. Please tell me, did I succeed?**

**Please Review! I'm not sure if the next chapter's quite finished yet, but when it is, I'll post it after there are 15 Reviews total. Please point out any mistakes that you see with any of the chapters, and I'll be sure to avoid making them next time!**


	4. Lonely Memories

**As promised, here's the next chapter! Thanks for all the reviews everyone! You're all awesome, and I hope that this Chapter doesn't disappoint you.**

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Ash Ketchum was staring at his long time friend with a look of love clouding his gaze. His eyes were wide and glazed. He couldn't even feel her gaze boring deep into both of them, but if he did, he ignored it. When she looked around, her glossy red hair perfect and her eyes bright, she watched as he blushed. After a second, she realized that he was looking at her, and she blushed too._

_Her hands were shaking. Ash Ketchum had finally come to terms with something he'd been so dense to before. They'd only been in Johto for a short while when they met up with an old friend of Ash and Brock's. Her name was Misty and she was a beautiful redhead whose looks Dawn envied. Brock had been amazed by how much older she looked and like he did with other girls, he tried to flirt with her._

_Ash had gotten jealous. Why? Because he was just starting to be less dense to girls, and Misty had just breezed right in and taken him away from her. She hadn't even had a chance to stop her, because the moment Ash saw Misty standing there, he practically started drooling. Only Misty's wink and greeting had shaken him from his paralyzed state._

_She shouldn't feel so jealous, but she was Ash's best friend! As far as she was concerned, Misty was a flirt and Dawn couldn't stand watching Ash drool over the other girl. She had liked Ash since she had started traveling with him, why else would she have worn a cheer leading outfit for him every time he challenged a gym?She could understand that Misty felt the same way about Ash that she did, but from all the stories he had told of her, Misty had never done any such thing for the love-dense boy that they both sought the affections of._

_Glancing around, she suddenly noticed Brock was sitting on a log nearby, his face beet red. His eyes that that adoring expression that he often go when he was around girls older then himself. However, there were no girls in sight, which confused her. Suddenly Brock snatched a piece of paper from his lap and clutched it to his chest, before jumping up and running around the campsite crazily._

_He disappeared into his tent for a minute, emerging almost immediately after dressed in a full tuxedo and holding a large bouquet of flowers in his hand. He danced around the camp for a moment, seeming to worry about his appearance as he snatched up Dawn's hand mirror for half a second to check his hair with. Then he half raced, half danced from the campsite, leaving Dawn with just Ash and Misty._

_She had never felt so alone in her life. Even when Brock camp back, dragging his reason for leaving so insanely, by the hand. He introduced her to them, but Dawn wasn't very interested in her. She was the same age as Brock, and still a student in Pokemon Nurse College. Her name? Honey Joy. And she was a sickeningly sweet as her name implied she was._

_Feeling overcome by mixed emotions; grief, devastation, loneliness, jealousy, Dawn retreated to her tent to "sleep". She didn't actually go to sleep for a few hours, but she needed an excuse to keep everyone away from her tent so that she could brood in peace. She needed to think more than anything. And both Ash and Brock were so distracted by Misty and Honey that they didn't even notice her presence was missing. She knew because she watched them from the darkest shadow of her tent._

_Staring out of her tent, she resolved to crying silently, eventually crying herself to sleep. She had never felt so alone in her entire life. Never before had her heart hurt so much, never before in her entire life. Ash Ketchum had broken her heart, without even realizing what he had done to her. Her heart was shattered to pieces, and she felt as though nothing could repair the damage done. _

Dawn's blue eyed reflection stared up at her from the river. She was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest and her forearms resting on her knees. Her eyes welled up with tears as she remembered the reason she'd given up her Buneary. She'd given her up to the one person who she not only knew would take good care of her, but would let her stay with the one who she truly loved. She'd given Misty her beloved Buneary.

She'd left Buneary's Pokeball with a note explaining why when she'd suddenly vanished. She made a note for Misty to give to the boys, and one for Misty's eyes only. The one for Misty's eyes only had explained why her Buneary had been left to Misty, and the one for Misty to give to the boys had merely said that Dawn had decided to travel alone and couldn't handle saying good bye in person. She hadn't mentioned that she doubted that Ash or Brock would even notice her presence was missing.

Now she was alone again. Ash had gone off with Pikachu and all his other Pokemon, promising that they would return. She had begged him not to go and say anything to Paul, but she expected that's where he had gone to anyway. That was one of the things that she had loved about him when they were younger, how he was a bit head strong and couldn't be pushed around. And how much he went out of his way to help others. He was most definitely one of a kind.

She shattered the perfect picture of serenity around her by brushing her hand in the sand beside her and snatching a handful of gravel up. She threw the handful into the water, breaking her reflection, and sending tiny ripples around. Here she was, sitting thinking about Ash Ketchum, when he already had a girlfriend. He'd been with Misty for years now, and here she was lost in her own thoughts, selfishly swooning over someone who was off limits for her. Closing her eyes, she rested her head on her forearms and felt angry with herself for being such a rash and reckless youth, as she fought off thoughts of Ash Ketchum.

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**Please Read and Review! The next Chapter is much longer than the others, so until I have 25 Total Reviews for this story, this is as far as I'll be posting. I know, I'm a horrible, horrible person, but I always beg for reviews and never get any. -sigh-**

**Now, Shall I read more Pearlshipping Fanfics or watch fan-made Pearlshipping Music Videos to make me super motivated to finish the chapter that I'm working on? Hmmmm..... Maybe they'll just distract me from writing.... Hmmmmm.......**


	5. According to You

**Hey there, Pearlshipping & Anti-Ikarishipping Fans! Also, Hello to readers who are neither of those, but are still reading anyway! Thanks for reading this far! You are awesome! **

**Ok, I can't wait to finish this story and get onto the sequel. Yes, I'm planning on writing a sequel, and the Idea has really got me excited! I am asking for 30 reviews before I post the next part of the story! So if you wanna know what happens next, please review! It doesn't matter if you are just saying that you like the ship or something, please review! I like reading what you think!**

**Also, I have an idea for a sequel to _According to You_ that I'm gonna start after I'm done writing a posting the rest of the chapters. I think that there might be around 8-9 chapters when the story is finished, but alot of them seem to pretty short, but very meaningful. No matter, Please keep Reading and Reviewing, the OCs in the sequel enjoy reading about what you think of this story!**

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She'd been sitting on the riverbank for about an hour now, and her legs were beginning to cramp up. Ash had suggested that she listen to music until he came back, but she'd declined. He'd put his battery powered radio on the table and he'd said it was there if she wanted to use it. Cramps now forming in her folded legs, and her mentally exhausted from the tidal wave of thoughts that were like a whirlpool in her head. She wanted something else to do, and listening to music sounded like a good idea to her.

Sighing, she stood up, the cramps in her legs practically screaming from the movement. She barely even winced, her mind had the effect of a wood chipper on her heart, so that's all that she could feel was that ache, that horrible, painful ache of a broken heart. Her mind felt numb from all the thoughts that had been poking the inside of her head for the past hour, and she felt like crying again, but she'd already cried herself dry.

She dropped herself into Ash's chair and exhaled quickly through her nose as she hit the chair. It was almost as if she was silently making a statement to herself about the effort she had used to get up and move to the new spot. She raised her hand and touched the button to turn the thing on, and let her head fall onto her forearms, which were now crossed on the table.

There was a static buzz for a second as the radio auto-tuned itself to the nearest station, or at least the station with the best reception from where the radio was. Dawn exhaled again, as if she was giving up. Already all her spark had gone, her fire stomped out, her fight long gone. All of it had gone long, long ago. Back when she'd been about twelve years old. And to look at her, there were no signs of it coming back anytime soon.

A voice startled her as the radio found and connected to a strong signal. The DJ was speaking, Dawn didn't bother to listen to what he was saying, she didn't care anyway. She didn't give her brain a chance to register the DJ's voice saying "Orianthi" and giving the music lineup for the next half hour or so. She was busy trying to clear her mind from herself. She didn't actually start paying attention until music started. At first, she was going to ignore it, but then the singer started to sing.

_**According to you**_

_**I'm stupid,**_

_**I'm useless,**_

_**I can't do anything right.**_

Dawn sighed, she could relate to this song. She lifted her head to look around for anyone nearby before turning the radio's volume up a little bit. Then she rested her chin on her forearms. She felt like she would like this song, even if it was only because she felt a connection to it because of her experiences.

_**According to you**_

_**I'm difficult,**_

_**hard to please,**_

_**forever changing my mind.**_

_**I'm a mess in a dress,**_

_**can't show up on time,**_

_**even if it would save my life.**_

_**According to you. According to you.**_

Her eyes had opened wide now, instead of being half shut and dull, like they had been since she'd crawled under the bush and cried herself to sleep. She was also sitting upright again, staring intently at the radio. She recalled times when Paul had caused an argument with her because she was "late". She'd been on time on every occasion, but just because she was on time and not early, he'd said that she was late. He'd told her to not wear her cheer leading outfit for him when he battled because it distracted and humiliated him.

_**But according to him**_

_**I'm beautiful,**_

_**incredible,**_

_**he can't get me out of his head.**_

Sighing again, she put her chin back on her forearms. When it came to this, there were always two boys trying to get the girl. However, Dawn only had one who didn't care for her at all. Her heart ached at the thought that she had no _him_ to escape to. All she had was Paul, and he wasn't what she wanted, wasn't who or what she longed for in her life.

_**According to him**_

_**I'm funny,**_

_**irresistible,**_

_**everything he ever wanted.**_

_**Everything is opposite,**_

_**I don't feel like stopping it,**_

_**so baby tell me what I got to lose.**_

_**He's into me for everything I'm not,**_

_**according to you.**_

She bit her lip, trying not to cry. This song had both given her back her fight, her spark, her fire, and then ripped it away from her again as the song moved on to the chorus. She still like the song, even if she had no Prince Charming to take her away on a Shiny Rapidash, and carry her off into the sunset.

_**According to you**_

_**I'm boring,**_

_**I'm moody,**_

_**you can't take me any place.**_

_**According to you**_

_**I suck at telling jokes cause I always give it away.**_

_**I'm the girl with the worst attention span;**_

_**you're the boy who puts up with it.**_

_**According to you. According to you.**_

She could relate to the song once again. According to Paul, she _was_ boring and moody. She felt as though parts of this song had been written specifically about her and her relationship with Paul. However, the chorus didn't fit into her life. Maybe at one point, her life would fit the whole song's rhythm, but for now, the chorus made it so that this song wasn't the story of her life.

_**But according to him**_

_**I'm beautiful,**_

_**incredible,**_

_**he can't get me out of his head.**_

_**According to him**_

_**I'm funny,**_

_**irresistible,**_

_**everything he ever wanted.**_

_**Everything is opposite,**_

_**I don't feel like stopping it,**_

_**so baby tell me what I got to lose.**_

_**He's into me for everything I'm not,**_

_**according to you.**_

Again with the puzzle piece that didn't quite fit into her life. She wished that the puzzle piece did fit, but there simply was no place that she could find where it would go. If only that puzzle piece was to her life puzzle and not to someone else's. The only thing that she could think of for the moment was that the puzzle piece in her hand was from Misty's puzzle, not hers.

_**I need to feel appreciated,**_

_**like I'm not hated. oh-- no--.**_

_**Why can't you see me through his eyes?**_

_**It's too bad you're making me decide.**_

Now this was something that she needed to listen to. She needed to break up with Paul. Such pain and heartbreak that he had caused her was too much. He didn't care about her. He didn't seem to care about anyone but himself. He was just a rude, ignorant little boy that she had to escape from. She needed to cut her ties with that boy forever, but he still had her beloved Pokemon, how could she just abandon everything when he was still keeping them with his?

_**According to me**_

_**you're stupid,**_

_**you're useless,**_

_**you can't do anything right.**_

That's the new attitude she needed to take. She clenched her fist and decided on that. Her fire that had seemed to go out was emerging from the embers. Paul should have treated her better. Paul should have treated everyone better. He was a jerk, and she needed to get away from him soon. She had done the right thing by leaving when she did, if only she'd left sooner, and taken her things and her Pokemon with her. If only she'd done that, she wouldn't be in the situation that she was in now.

_**But according to him**_

_**I'm beautiful,**_

_**incredible,**_

_**he can't get me out of his head.**_

_**According to him**_

_**I'm funny,**_

_**irresistible,**_

_**everything he ever wanted.**_

_**Everything is opposite,**_

_**I don't feel like stopping it,**_

_**baby tell me what I got to lose.**_

_**He's into me for everything I'm not,**_

_**according to you. [you, you]**_

_**According to you. [you, you]**_

If only she did have who the girl singing had. If only she did, then she could be happy at last. She wouldn't be lonely, and feel forced to turn to those who didn't love her, didn't care about her one bit. She could have someone who would wrap his arms around her just as Ash had the other night. She forced the thought away. Ash had Misty, he wasn't interested in her, he was merely trying to get her to stop crying. He was a good friend, he didn't like to see anyone upset. That had been the only reason.

_**According to you**_

_**I'm stupid,**_

_**I'm useless,**_

_**I can't do anything right.**_

And so, the song ended with a reminder to her that Paul was something that she needed to leave alone. He'd never treated her well to start with, and things had just gotten worse. If only Ash loved her instead of Misty. She could only think of Ash as her Prince Charming, the Prince who would sweep her off of her feet and carry her off into the sunset on a Shiny Rapidash, and she knew that could never happen, she could never be with him, he loved Misty and that was that.

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**And so that concludes this Chapter of _According to You._ Please Tell me what you think so that you can meet the OCs in the Sequel! They sure want to meet you!**

**Jade: _I don't._**

**Me: You don't have to be in the story. I can soon take you out.**

**Jade: Whatever, you said that you aren't going to include me in it a lot anyway.**

**Me: Well if you were nice to anyone but yourself, then maybe you _would_ be in the story more!**

**Jade: Whatever. You're just a loser anyway.**

**Me: -slaps Jade-**

**Jade: _HOW DARE YOU! _-slaps Me_- _I'm leaving. Later Loser. -leaves-**

**Me: Sorry about her, guys. Anyway, with the exception of Jade, the rest of the OCs sure wanna meet you! So please review, review, review! **


	6. Now

**I'm really sorry guys. I realized on Sunday March the 28****th ****that Paul has black eyes, not green. I'm sorry for confusing you, I must have been thinking about James' eyes, not Paul's. Man, I sure feel stupid.**

**I was kinda surprised about the reviews..... I thought that somebody would have commented on my substituting "white horse" with "shiny rapidash" lol**

**And to stop confusion, I have edited a small mistake that I made. If anyone sees any others, please tell me so that I can fix them.**

**Something I forgot to mention in the last chapter, and possibly in other chapters too: ****I don't own Pokemon.**

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A Pikachu perched on his shoulder and raven colored hair sticking out at all angles from under a loved red hat, his dark eyes stared into hard black ones. He was standing in a doorway, having just knocked on the door to the other trainer's house. It had taken only a few short moments before the door had opened, revealing just who he'd been looking for.

"What do you want?" The black eyed trainer asked, his voice cold and his eyes fixed on the other in a hard stare.

"I want her Pokemon back. _Now_." His normally friendly brown eyes were completely black and like the black eyed trainer with whom he was conversing with, they were hard as stones and as cold as shards of ice.

"Huh?" The other trainer seemed confused, really genuinely confused. He also looked shocked, shocked at seeing _him_ here, on his doorstep, or perhaps what _he_ was demanding from him was what had caught him off guard? Either way, he could not hide the look of surprise upon his brow.

"You know what I want. I recommend that you go and get them. _Now_." His hands were clenched in such tight fists that his fingernails were leaving small, purple imprints in his skin. His hands were clenched so tightly that they were shaking. Nobody could possibly be stupid enough to not understand that he meant what he said.

"And who's going to make me? _You_?" He asked, crossing his arms in challenge. His eyebrows were raised as if to say, _Bring. It. On._ His black eyes were cold and narrowed, one could even go as far as to say that they were narrowed _mockingly_ and they wouldn't be be far off the target.

Those black eyes were staring into narrowed brown ones, challenge, anger and even hatred polluted their depths. His mouth was set in a grim line. He didn't even flinch at the other trainer's mocking response. "Ok then, let's make a deal. We will battle for them. Although they _are_ Dawn's Pokemon and we have no right to do this. If you win, then I am a failure. If I win, then you will give Dawn's Pokemon to me, so that I can give them to her. Deal?"

He put one of his hands out in front of him, offering a handshake to the other boy. Paul's pride at always being able to beat the other boy was something he quite enjoyed. Ash Ketchum couldn't beat him to a battle if he wanted to, which had been clear every time that Paul battled him that he did very much want to win. Paul smirked and took Ash's hand, giving him a rough and brief handshake.

Turning quickly, he snatched up a backpack which contained the Pokeballs of all his Pokemon. Then, he went to slam the door behind him as he left the house, but Ash stuck his foot in the door to stop him. His brown eyes were just as angry as before, and twice as determined as he was angry. "Dawn's Pokemon?" He prompted, nodding to the house. Paul merely glared and went back in the house, retrieving a smaller backpack which held Dawn's Pokemon.

Ash nodded and the two walked in silence to the nearest Pokemon Battlefield.

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**I have the last chapters done and uploaded already. I just will be refusing to add them until I have 40 total reviews for this story. So, please review!**


	7. A Thorn in Her Side

**All I can say is Wow. That was really fast. I was thinking that it might be a couple of days before I needed to put up the next chapter. Again, wow.**

**Please point out any errors that you find. And I will fix them ASAP.**

**Anyway, I do not own Pokemon.**

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Paul stood, staring in disbelief. His last Pokemon was laying on it's back on the battlefield, unconscious. His eyes were narrowed with anger. How could he have lost this battle? He had been battling Ketchum, Ash Kethcum for Arceus' sake!

"Electavire is unable to battle. Ash of Pallet Town is the Winner." The battle's judge announced. A random passerby had elected himself as the battle's judge, and a crowd had gathered around to watch the battle.

"Yo! Epic Battle, Man!" One Onlooker yelled to them, his voice loud above the crowd. Paul shot the crowd a glance, but he couldn't see who had yelled, or anyone who he knew. They were just people who just wanted to watch, and nameless fans of either him or Ash.

"Good Match." Ash Ketchum's voice penetrated his thoughts, and Paul realized that the other trainer was standing in front of him, holding out a hand to shake his. As much as Ash seemed friendly, Paul had noticed that there was a meaningful look in his eyes, a warning. Paul could guess what it meant. Ketchum was warning him to never treat another woman the way that he'd treated Dawn.

Stiffly, Paul nodded, and shook hands with Ash. Before he realized he had said anything, the words were out of his mouth. "How on Earth? How did I lose?"

"I was Kanto's Champion. The only reason that I'm not now is because I got bored of it after a few years. I was never defeated, and Kanto was starting to get very boring for me. I prefer to travel, I've done so since I was ten years old, I get bored of staying in one place for too long. I gave up being Kanto's Champion so that I could travel again, and I found an old friend and a thorn in her side."

After his speech, Ash Ketchum turned and walked over to the bag containing all of Dawn's Pokemon. He picked it up, and silently walked off the Battlefield and disappeared into the crowd. Paul just returned Electavire to it's Pokeball in silence, and put his hands in his pockets. He had lost to Ash Ketchum, the trainer who he had thought he could always beat. The tables had turned.

Angry with himself and his Pokemon for losing such an important battle, the second battle that he'd lost in the past week. He was losing his edge, and that was something important. He needed his edge, the edge to win. Perhaps he'd go to Kanto, and challenge the one who had taken Ash Ketchum's place. If he could become a champion, then maybe he could beat Ash Ketchum.

His pride hurting, he stared down at his shoes, and collected his stuff. From there, he wandered off the battlefield, not looking up at anything. From the battlefield, he went to the Pokemon center to heal his Pokemon, then from there he went home. Perhaps the way he'd been training had been wrong all along? He'd seen what a little encouragement from Ash Ketchum had done for Torterra and for Floatzel. They'd been near fainting, but Ash's encouragement had made them able to withstand the hits dealt and they'd knocked out his Pokemon instead.

He had lost to Ash Ketchum, in front of a large crowd. His pride had been damaged a great deal. He felt very motivated to leave the region immediately. He couldn't stand being in Sinnoh any longer.

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**Ok, I need 55 reviews until you get the next chapter! (Yes, I know that I'm a cruel, heartless person) So if you wanna read it soon, please review!**


	8. Flashbacks and Old Friends

**Ok, here is the long awaited chapter 8! I guess that by now, you hate me for making you wait, but oh well. Here it is, anyway.**

PLEASE REVIEW WHEN YOU'VE READ THE CHAPTER!

**I don't own Pokemon.**

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"Dawn, I thought that you might like these back." Ash's soft voice said to the blue haired girl as she sat, her arms wrapped around her knees, on the shore of the river. She was sitting the exact same way when he'd left her this morning. His heart ached that she felt so upset that she might sit like that all day long and not move.

She looked around, and what he saw shocked her. There was something in her eyes that hadn't been there before. When he'd left that morning, he'd only seen sadness and hurt in those beautiful blue eyes of hers. Now, he saw something different, something that had been missing before. A hint of the old Dawn seemed to have returned.

There was still sadness, but her eyes were brighter, he was sure of it. Had something happened while he'd been getting her Pokemon back for her? He wondered that as he handed her the backpack that contained all her possessions which Paul had kept. Most importantly, in that bag were the Pokeballs of Dawn's Pokemon.

He handed the backpack to Dawn, who nodded and mumbled her thanks. She took the backpack from him, and pulled out her Pokeballs. She threw them in the air, and let them all out. Seeing their trainer, they tackled her lovingly. They'd missed her, and some had even witnessed Paul's treatment of her. And most of all, they'd seen how much it had broken her heart to both give up Buneary and leave the boy that she loved forever.

But she'd needed to feel some void in her life, something that it seemed that Ash Ketchum hadn't understood, and at that time, hadn't been able to give her. Or at least, he hadn't after Misty came along. That's why she'd run off, and somehow in her tears, found herself in the arms of one who called her "troublesome".

Thinking back, she couldn't really remember exactly how she had ended up in Paul's arms. It had just been one disaster after another, and then she couldn't be bothered to find someone else. Paul at least had strong Pokemon to protect her, since she felt as though she couldn't protect herself. She'd always had Brock or Ash around before to help her out when she needed it, then she had nobody. At least with Paul, she would have some company, even if he seldom spoke to her, and regarded her as a burden.

"You didn't have to do that, Ash." Dawn said quietly, giving him a small smile as she wrapped her arms around Piplup. Despite Paul's repeated attempts, Dawn's Pokemon had stuck together and refused to let Paul take Piplup's everstone, because Piplup had no wish to evolve into Prinplup.

"Yes I did. You are very, _very_ important to me, Dawn, and I can't stand to see you upset. Even if I can't undo what has already happened, I can at least try to fix what's hurting you. Even I'm not so dense that I can see you have been missing your Pokemon a lot." Ash responded, offering her a hand up.

Taking his hand, Dawn allowed Ash to pull her to her feet. When she was standing, she let go of his hand like it was a hot potato, and she locked her fingers behind her back. Staring down in shock, or up in the case of one, Dawn was astounded to see her Pokemon again. They all looked happy to see her, she thought that they would have been angry at her for dragging them away from all of their friends to go and live with someone who hated them.

"So..... What have I missed over the years since I left?" Dawn asked quietly, hoping that Ash would tell her that there was nothing important enough for him to tell the story. The two sat at the table, while their Pokemon played around them.

"Please don't get mad and leave for me saying this, but I'm going to tell you the whole, honest story." Ash told Dawn, letting the memories play in his head as he spoke. He didn't want to deceive her any.

_At first, after Dawn left, he'd been kind of glad. Not only did he have Misty to his self, since Brock and Honey Joy were always off on dates. Honey Joy seemed to be just as bad as Brock when it came to the opposite gender, and her female Croagunk kept her in line the same way that Brock's Croagunk kept him in line. Both Croagunk didn't seem to mind their trainer's newest love interest, in fact, the Croagunk themselves even seemed to be in love with each other._

_The other reason that he was glad that Dawn had left was because now he didn't have to worry about her feeling left out at all, not that he thought about that much with his infatuated Misty vision controlling his life. However, although he didn't notice it at the time, Misty had become all distant when Dawn had left, she'd often retreated to her tent, and she was all quiet and broody all the time._

_His head had been way to far in the clouds to realize this, or how much he missed his Sinnoh best friend, Dawn. _

_After a week, Ash Ketchum had finally worked up the nerve to ask Misty out on a date. He hadn't noticed that her response had not been a yes, but a reluctant yes._

"No offense Ash, but your love life isn't what I was really asking about...." Dawn said quietly, masking the hurt look in her eyes with another which she was feeling at that moment; awkward. Ash nodded, and skipped a very large part of the story.

"_Ash, I can't do this anymore." Misty said, her beautiful green eyes wide, and serious. They were sitting on a bench in Pallet town, watching the sunset together. They had just been sitting in peaceful silence for the past hour or so._

_The raven haired boy had looked round at her, his brown eyes wide with confusion. He had absolutely no idea what on earth she was talking about. His brown eyes met hers, and she held his gaze for a few minutes. Ash felt a though he had never been more confused with anything in his life._

"_I'm really sorry, but I have been thinking, and I've made a decision. We can't be a couple anymore Ash, I would really just prefer it if we were friends." Misty sighed, breaking Ash's gaze, and turning to look at the sunset. Ash had been the greatest first boyfriend she could have ever wanted, but now she could see that this relationship wasn't her fairy tale._

"_What? Why?" Ash had finally found his tongue. His eyes were even wider now than before, and Misty couldn't meet his gaze, for fear of seeing his sadness in his eyes. She couldn't handle that. Ash's voice was hard enough to bear, but looking at him, she would break down crying and wouldn't be able to go through with what she was doing._

"_Ash, think about it, We love each other, yes, but not in a boyfriend-girlfriend husband/wife kind of way. Honestly, Ash, you are one of my closest friends, but I'll understand if you don't want to be friends with me after this, but I know in my heart that I'm doing the right thing."_

_Misty had to pause. Her eyes were stinging as she held back tears. She _had_ to do this. She had convinced herself of that over the past two months, and before that, she'd been thinking about it since she first accepted Ash's invite for a date. It was hurting her to say it, but she had to get it over with now. Ash didn't say a word._

"_Ash, let me put it this way. If you left me for another girl, I know you're not the kind to do something as heartless as that, but it's just an example. Anyway, if you left me for another, yes I would be crushed, but it wouldn't kill me. I would get over it, just like I would with if almost anyone else did that to me. But the thing is, I know that there is someone out there who it is _killing_ her inside to know that we are together, but she won't interfere because she wants you to be happy, even if it kills her. And I actually am starting to think that there is someone like that for me too."_

_Misty paused again, fighting to get her emotions under control. Still, Ash Ketchum stayed in complete silence, which was worrying her a bit. She glanced at him through the corner of her beautiful green eyes, and she could see that he had turned away from her, his hands cupped around his mouth and nose with shock._

"_Ash, it's going to hurt now, I know. I am hurting just as much as you are, maybe more, but think about how much _more_ it will hurt if we do this later rather than sooner?"_

_Finally, Misty heard Ash's voice, he was clearly fighting his emotions to keep from breaking down and crying too. He had an argument against her decision. "But we fight like an old married couple!"_

"_No Ash, we fight like brother and sister, don't you see? I love you like the brother that I never had, and I want to be your friend forever, if you'll let me. I just can't keep being your girlfriend anymore."_

_More silence from Ash. Ash could tell that Misty was serious, and Misty could tell that what she was saying was finally starting to sink into Ash Ketchum's mind. Misty and him were no longer dating, and there was nothing that he could say that prevent it. Misty reached into her pocket and pulled out a photograph._

"_Here Ash, I want you to have this. Once you can figure out the meaning of this photograph, the reason that I'm giving it to you, then come and find me. I will have something that you need to deliver for me once you've figured it all out. I hope that we can still be friends after this, I would love to keep you as the brother that I never had."_

_Misty rose from her place on the bench, and began to walk away from him. Her eyes were just about ready to overflow with tears. She had broken her heart, and his heart too. She hoped that he wouldn't hate her after this, that they might still be friends. She was about fifteen feet away from him when she heard him call her name. Taking a deep breath, she turned around to face him._

"_Misty, what is it a picture of? There's too much fog.... or smoke.... in the shot that I can't see what the picture is actually of." Ash's voice didn't seem so upset as it had when he'd last spoken. He still sounded very upset, but more than upset, he sounded _curious_._

"_A Sunrise." Misty said simply, giving him one last smile and walking back to his house to get her stuff from the Guest room, which his mother had willingly given her for the duration of her stay in Pallet Town._

"You know Dawn, I feel so stupid! It has taken me all this time to figure out what that picture meant. And you know, I think that you're the one who helped me figure it out. Thanks."

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**Like I said before, PLEASE REVIEW! I would like 70 total reviews before I post chapter 9, and I feel that this chapter deserves that many reviews.**


	9. Oh the Drama

**Here you go, the final chapter to _According to You_, and by now, I figure that it's probably long awaited. Am I right about that?**

**Please review! I know that there are no chapters after this, although I might have a question and answer period with a few of the characters from the sequel series I was gonna write. Maybe, maybe not. After reading, you can review on that if you want, and ask questions too, even though you guys have only been hinted to about Jade thus far.**

**I don't own Pokemon -sigh- I wish I did though.**

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"Turns out that whatever it was that Misty wanted me to deliver when I figured out what the picture meant, was for you." Ash Ketchum said, handing a box to Dawn, who was speechless.

Dawn nodded and accepted the box from Ash, carefully opening the lid to it. It was a Pokeball. Dawn had a feeling that she knew what it was for, and she threw it in the air, letting the Pokemon who was inside it come out of it.

"Bun Bun!" Buneary cried, leaping up to deliver a crushing hug to Dawn.

"Buneary, I've missed you so much!" Dawn said, giving the Pokemon a equally as crushing hug.

"Pika, Pika-chu!" Pikachu cried, leaping from Ash's shoulder to Dawn's to give his long time friend a Pika-bear hug. Buneary, still having a crush on Pikachu, nearly fainted from the shock.

"Now, Ash, are you going to tell me what that picture meant? I was going to ask you yesterday, but you took off and I didn't get a chance to." Dawn asked, letting Pikachu and Buneary down on the ground so that Buneary could reunite with Dawn's other Pokemon.

"Oh, right." Ash said, sweatdropping as he remembered how he had bolted from camp right after story time the previous day. "The picture was of a sunrise, right? What is another name for sunrise?"

"Morning?"

"Try again."

"Dawn."

"And there was fog obstructing the view of the sunrise. Another name for fog?"

"Mist. Or _Misty_. And I can see where this is going, I think."

"Right, an-"

"And it doesn't matter how much fog there is each morning, Every morning the sun rises and the fog fades away. You can always, always count on that." A female voice cut off Ash's voice.

Ash and Dawn looked around, wide eyed, at the beautiful green eyed, red headed gym leader. She was standing with a big smile on her face, holding hands with a boy with unique shaggy green hair and dark eyes like Ash.

"Misty!" Ash and Dawn cried in unison, their mouths hanging open. Even all the Pokemon seemed shocked, except for Buneary, who leaped off the ground and gave Misty a crushing squeeze. It seemed that the two had become quite good friends while Buneary had been in Misty's care, but Buneary had always love Dawn as her trainer, despite her friendship with Misty, who had at the time been like a rival to Dawn.

"Tracey!" That was only Ash, since Dawn had never met Tracey Sketchit.

The redhead looked at Dawn, smiling. "It's like our relationships. I was the only thing that Ash could see for awhile, but after I realized that deep down, he had feelings for you, I realized that our relationship was like the sunrise in the picture. Dawn comes and Mist fades away from the focus. I knew that although Ash felt like he loved me then, had we run into you again, you would outshine me for sure. And I figured that my dating Ash was hurting Tracey as much as it was hurting you."

"Oh the drama of a teenager's life." Tracey commented.

"You know, once you two admit that you like each other more than friends, we can go on a double date. Or a triple... or quadruple... or quintuple... depending on how many of our friends you want to invite on it with us." Misty said with a wink.

"So I was the reason that you ran off and started... were you guys even dating? … Paul? Man, do I ever feel stupid!" Ash facepalmed.

"It's alright Ash, the Ash Ketchum who is as dense as a brick wall is the one that everyone knows and loves, so don't feel bad about it!" Dawn smiled, touching Ash's shoulder, almost as if to keep herself from falling over as everyone but Ash laughed hysterically.

"So, what do you guys say about the double date?" Tracey prompted, with a wink at Ash.

"Shall we?" Ash said, offering his arm to Dawn.

"Lets." She said, linking her arm with his, and smiling at Misty and Tracey. When Ash looked around at the Pokemon, Dawn mouthed _'thanks'_ to Tracey and Misty, who mouthed back, in unison _'no problem'_.

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**There we go, the final chapter is complete and posted!**

**Was this ending worth 70 reviews? Please be honest!**


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